The ABCs of Biotech for Christians - Fifteenth in a series - N is for Nanotech

Goodbye drugs, hello light. That sums up the latest nanotech news that MRSA can be killed with nanoparticle photosensitizers. A few words of explanation:

Nano

A measurement like inches, but a nano is a billionth of a meter. A meter is 39.3701 inches, so a nanometer is 3.937e-8. It’s an exponent thing— most of us cannot do that math. But we can understand that with a scanning electron microscope or an atomic force microscope, it is possible to view life’s parts— cells, atoms, other— and these can only be measured in nanometers. Anything larger would not help to compute what is under consideration.

Nanoparticle

A particle is between 1 and 100 nanometers in size with a surrounding interfacial layer. That layer is part of the nanoscale matter, affecting all of its properties.

MRSA

The dreaded bacteria that grows unseen in nursing homes and is nearly impossible to be controlled or eradicated by antibiotics.

Nanoparticle photosensitizers

Mostly dye molecules, that become excited when illuminated with light. Then, the photosensitizers convert oxygen into reactive oxygen species that attack the bacteria.

That is a cursory view to a new nanotechnology that was discussed on August 19, 2018, at the National Expo of the American Chemical Society. To find out the latest nanotech news, visit Nanotech News.

Nanotech touches many more venues than biotech, the focus of this blog. Without it, biotech advances would be far less revolutionary. With it, discerning whether a discovery is an advance or regress is tricky. A discovery must be proven to be safe in a scaled up or real environment since the laws governing the nano environment are different from those in the “real” world.

Some quotes:

The field of nanotechnology has witnessed an explosion in research efforts over the past decade. Specific advances have been seen in nanotechnology applications to biomedicine that have revolutionized the way we view disease diagnosis and treatment, and tissue regeneration and repair... it is a very exciting time to work in the field of nanotechnology toward regenerative medicine... (ref)

Due to these emerging fields, rational design approaches to diagnosis, drug development, personalized medicine and point-of-care devices (POCDs) are possible. (ref)

The term bionanotechnology describes how scientists study life on a nano level to then mimic what they learn as they engineer therapies for health and medical needs.

But are these bioengineers on the horizon of a vast new paradise of mega advances in healing? Or at an impasse born of blind eyes to what they are seeing through their high-tech microscopes?

If a scientist believes that the complex structures and interactions in view at exponential magnifications are the result of evolution over millions of years of mutations and accidental progress, will he not view himself as brilliant for unraveling how these may be used to identify and restructure diseased cells and tissues? And if this leads to good outcomes will he not insist on applying all this knowledge to re-imagining the creature of which he has now a thoroughgoing understanding?

If, on the other hand, he marvels at the nano world made possible to see by instruments, not by his own physical capabilities, and realizes that it could only have been fashioned by an all-powerful, supreme being, then he will worship the Creator and take care not to change any of his perfect creation. He will strive only to heal and correct mutations that have occurred because of sin in the world, but he will have no desire to improve man in the sense of changing his likeness made in the image of God.